Homeland Security watchdog Cuffari faces rebukes from lawmakers in missing texts case

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The Department of Homeland Security’s chief watchdog has rejected calls from leading Democratic legislators to recuse himself from the investigation into the erasure of text messages that Secret Service agents exchanged during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, drawing fresh rebukes from lawmakers on Tuesday.

Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in a letter made public Tuesday that he would not share investigative documents or allow his top lieutenants to sit for transcribed interviews before House committees investigating the attack, nor would he provide documents that lawmakers requested. Cuffari said forcing him to step aside “has no legal basis" and “would upend the very independence that Congress has established for Inspectors General,” according to the letter he sent to House oversight committees on Aug. 8.

The House committees on Homeland Security and Oversight and Reform published his letter Tuesday, along with their response accusing Cuffari of delaying their inquiry into one of the most grievous attacks in U.S. history. Cuffari surprised legislators last month with a letter accusing the Secret Service of erasing text messages from the time of the attack after he had asked for them. But committee members soon learned that Cuffari and his staff had known about the missing messages for months, failed to notify Congress or the Homeland Security secretary and cancelled steps to retrieve them.

Lawmakers said the messages could contain crucial evidence because Secret Service agents shadow presidents and other top officials and may have witnessed their actions that day. “Your obstruction of the Committees’ investigations is unacceptable, and your justifications for this noncompliance appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress’s authority and your duties as an Inspector General,” Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Bennie G. Thompson, chair of the Jan. 6 committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security, wrote to Cuffari Tuesday.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/16/missing-secret-service-texts-cuffari/

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[msfiddlestix]

1. hmm.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. This idiot needs to be fired

[herding cats]

3. He needs to go.

Soon, as in immediately.

I know Joe promised not to remove any IG's if he were elected, but this is an exception. This isn't retaliation against an IG for doing oversight investigations (like trump did when he fired 6 of them), but removing one who is refusing to do any oversight investigations and impeding an official investigation into their incompetence/corruption.

It's truly apples and oranges.

[bluestarone]

4. Sounds very much like a RUMP appointee?

STALL STALL STALL, but we'll get them eventually!

[Quanto Magnus]

5. So he's....

committing obstruction....

He can whine all he wants, but if he's not doing his job, he should be fired.

Sure looks like he's not doing his job...

[ancianita]

6. A Trump IG. Along with that

Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in a letter made public Tuesday that he would not share investigative documents or allow his top lieutenants to sit for transcribed interviews before House committees investigating the attack, nor would he provide documents that lawmakers requested. Cuffari said forcing him to step aside “has no legal basis" and “would upend the very independence that Congress has established for Inspectors General,”

a rebuke is too light. He should be removed, since delaying his IG report sounds like enough legal basis, imo.

[lark]

7. Fire him now then lock him up if appropriate.

He's a rw fascist asswipe hired by drumpf to ensure the truth stays hidden. Or so it seems to me.